Finding the last cache in your area…. – Wisconsin Geocaching Association

This topic has 33 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 2 months ago by Todd300.

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10/27/2009 at 10:10 pm #1729050
Todd300
While some of you live in large metro areas such as Milwaukee/West Bend, Madison, or Appleton/Green Bay, most of you probably live in areas that are not as dense with caches.

So how did you feel when you found the last cache in the area? Sad, happy, etc.

Where I live, there’s only about 60 some caches here in Marinette and Menominee. I found 56 of them. two unfound ones are night caches that I DNF’ed due to fire tacks being covered by leaves. I’ll get those after I get my milestone. The other two are T5 caches only accessed by boat. I might get those in winter during ice over.

When I found the last cache in my area that I could access, I felt a sense of accomplishment that I just about got all the caches in my area, but at the same time, I felt sad that there are no more caches for me to look for in my home area unless someone puts one out.

How about the rest of you? How did you feel finding the last cache in your area?
10/27/2009 at 10:28 pm #1915878
Captain and Mate
We have most of the caches within 15 miles or so, which has required us to drive further and further, but it’s gotten us to a lot of neat places, too. We still have a lot to find in Kenosha and Racine, which aren’t that far away. At one time, we were hell-bent to get every cache in Bong. That’s a great place, but there haven’t been any new caches there in a while, so we really miss caching there. Overall, it’s a bit of a bummer to have to travel more, but there’s a whole world of caches out there and the fun is never-ending! 😀
10/27/2009 at 10:39 pm #1915879
marc_54140
When I crossed the 4000 line, there were 95 caches within 50 miles of home.

Now, close to 8000, there are over 600 within 50 miles.

I do not see it as a problem.
10/27/2009 at 10:39 pm #1915880
marc_54140
If you are really desperate, I’ll come up and plant a few puzzles.
10/27/2009 at 11:40 pm #1915881
cheezehead
@marc_54140 wrote:

If you are really desperate, I’ll come up and plant a few puzzles.

I know he has a bag full of containers.
10/27/2009 at 11:50 pm #1915882
Trekkin and Birdin
We’ve cleaned out our 50 mile radius completely at least twice. It’s not quite as dense as say the Fox Valley, but it includes the LaCrosse area. I just checked without filtering, and at the moment, there are 1244 caches in that radius. It was fun to be able to say we did it, but then….we have to travel much further to make a day of it now, which isn’t always a blessing, especially since we’re back at work and our lives have changed a lot lately so that running off on a whim is just not an option now.

So, we have changed our perspective. It is no longer a goal to get them all. If we try it once, don’t find it and don’t enjoy it…..we can move on. If it doesn’t interest us…so what? Someone else can get it. The world will continue on as it has, whether we clear them all again or not. Really. It will.
10/28/2009 at 12:02 am #1915883
CodeJunkie
I’m not even close to a clean slate, but I work in the Fox Valley area, live 25 miles west, and have hunting land another 25 miles SW where we spend about 30 weekends a year. Considering this is the “Land of Sellzup” there is plenty to keep my mind occupied (thanks cheeto, marc, S|S, etc.).

There’s always the option of adding more caches. I probably shouldn’t get on my soapbox here, but it’s a little disheartening to see someone log a “Found” on my cache and when I check their profile I see they’re in the 1K+ club and don’t own any caches (not picking on anyone in particular, bust something I’ve noticed). I’ve started placing some in the Berlin / Princeton area to make it a draw for others to venture out this way. For me the options are plentiful because I’ve lived in the area all my life and have a firm grasp on where some of the “off the beaten” path areas are.
10/28/2009 at 1:24 am #1915884
zuma
At one point, I had my 50 mile radius cleaned out to just 11 caches left. Now there are about 140 unfound caches within 50 miles. They just keep coming out faster and faster it seems.

z
10/28/2009 at 1:32 am #1915885
labrat_wr
I had 20 mile radius cleared awhile back but now with new cachers playing the hiding game, I have a few within that range to do now.
While the close ones get picked off fairly quickly, it is nice to have some close to go after once in awhile.

to answer how I felt, it was a sense of accomplishment but then having to travel further distances made it hard to get the quick fix.

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
10/28/2009 at 2:53 am #1915886
Ray
Once you have cached-out your home territory, you need to change your goals. Try the 72 county challenge, the DeLorme challenge, the 50 State challenge or Bingo Black-out. Or come up with a challenge of your own. There is a lot more to it than just getting the ones near your home.
10/28/2009 at 2:55 am #1915887
Ray
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10/28/2009 at 2:56 am #1915888
Ray
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10/28/2009 at 3:21 am #1915889
sandlanders
Depends on what you consider your “area”. Once you’ve been in the game long enough, even caching as slowly as we do, you eventually run out of caches that may be considered “close”, but we think of that as maybe 20-30 miles. It gets harder to make a quick run for a few caches when you have to add travel time in.

We try to keep Adams County “clean”, living in the center of it, but new ones keep popping up. Closer inspection as led us to discover that some caches near Oxford are really in Adams County, so we need to go looking for those.

You don’t necessarily have to have challenges to get you caching away from your home turf. Just decide to find some caches in a certain area and go there for the day or even overnight if it’s farther. Then, if you get some DNFs, you can go back again to clean them up and to do the ones you left out the time before, plus do some new ones that may have come up since your last visit. Then you do this a few times for a few places, and you have lots of places to cache–they just involve a bit of travel to get there.
10/28/2009 at 11:33 am #1915890
Trekkin and Birdin
Once you have cached-out your home territory, you need to change your goals. Try the 72 county challenge, the DeLorme challenge, the 50 State challenge or Bingo Black-out. Or come up with a challenge of your own. There is a lot more to it than just getting the ones near your home.

We’ve done all that, Ray, LOL. Our goal these days is getting nine blackout cells filled with a cache published before 4/06/07, so that when I next visit friends in Napa Valley, I can take a swing by the original Fizzy in California.
5/4.5….that one’s gonna be the toughie!

Other than that….we cache to discover and have fun. We will always take the remote hikes or paddles or free rock or tree climbs over urban stuff, but as long as we are exploring, discovering new places or things and having fun, we’ll keep playing. Goals are nice to help us choose where we want to go, but in the end….it’s fun and discovery for us.

P.S. 50 states is an uattainable one for us, probably. Something about Trekkin’ not wanting to board airplanes. That last little gaffe with NWA has not helped my case!
10/28/2009 at 11:40 am #1915891
Timberline Echoes
We have kept the 25 miles surrounding our area cleaned out for years. The 50 mile has been cleared out often. There are some there now but all spread out on the fringes of that radius. Our area is very low on caches but then we have Lake MI East of us and Lake Superior north of us.
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